Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Laura Ingalls Wilder at the age of 23 in her black wedding dress

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (born  February 7, 1867 in Pepin , Wisconsin , †  February 10, 1957 in Mansfield , Missouri ) was an American writer . Her autobiographical book series was adapted for television as Little House on the Prairie (Our Little Farm) .

Life

Childhood and youth

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born as the second daughter of Caroline Lake Quiner and Charles Phillip Ingalls . Her parents married on February 1, 1860 and had three other daughters ( Mary , Carrie, and Grace) and a son, Charles Frederick (Freddy), who died nine months after he was born. Childhood was marked by family moves. In 1879, Laura's sister, Mary Ingalls , went blind , and Laura resolved to earn a living to help Mary attend college . Like her mother, Laura trained to be a teacher, although she initially didn't like school.

Life as a farmer

Laura Almanzo married James Wilder on August 25, 1885. The ten-year-old farmer had to court her for a long time before she agreed to marry. Although she grew up on a farm herself, she hated the idea of ​​living as a farmer. Almanzo then suggested that she test this life for four years. On December 5, 1886, Laura's and Almanzo's only daughter was born, the future author Rose Wilder Lane . Her unnamed son died shortly after giving birth in 1889. The four years on the farm were marked by strokes of fate. The house burned down in an accident and shortly afterwards both Laura and Almanzo contracted diphtheria .

As she had always wished, Laura moved west with Almanzo and Rose to start a new life. In 1894 they settled in Mansfield and bought a farm they called Rocky Ridge Farm. Both worked hard, Almanzo on a delivery service and Laura on the railroad, to provide Rose and themselves with a good standard of living.

Social attitude and death

Laura Ingalls Wilder repeatedly took a stance on social and ethical problems in her stories . Her philosophy is shaped by a deep but also pragmatic piety. So it is not progressive in the classic sense, but always open to new ideas. She obviously didn't have much of a problem with her daughter Rose Wilder Lane's active contact with suffragettes at the beginning of the 20th century . Laura outlived her husband, who died in 1949, by eight years. She herself died three days after her 90th birthday.

Books

Rose Wilder Lane urged her mother to put her teenage and childhood notes together in a book. However, the first version of the book was rejected. Only after her life story had been converted into a children's book did a publisher accept the book. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a total of nine books about her life. She also wrote numerous newspaper articles (the first as early as 1894) and numerous essays that have since been published in "Samplers".

reception

  • In 1954 Wilder received the first American Library Association award named after her , the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award , for great merits in children's literature. In 2018, the award was renamed Children's Literature Legacy Award after an investigation found evidence of racist stereotypes in Wilder's books , and Wilder's name was removed from the list of winners. Wilder herself changed a passage in Little House on the Prairie while she was still alive , in which she had written that Kansas had "no people, only Indians". At this point there is now “no settlers, only Indians” (“no settlers, only Indians”).
  • Numerous schools, libraries, and streets in the United States are named after her.
  • In 1991 the asteroid (4875) Ingalls was named after her.
  • There are numerous Laura Ingalls Wilder societies, mainly in the USA, but z. B. also in Japan.
  • In a listing from April 2, 2015, the BBC Wilder's Little House on the Prairie was one of the eleven most important children's books.

Works

literature

  • Judy Alter: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Pioneer and author . The Child's World, Chanhassen, Minn. 2004, ISBN 1-592-96007-3 .
  • William Anderson (Ed.): Laura's Album. A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder . Harpers Collins World, New York 1998, ISBN 0-06-027842-0 .
  • William Anderson: Laura Ingalls Wilder: a biography , New York, NY: Collins, 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-088552-6
  • Emma C. Berne: Laura Ingalls Wilder . ABDO Publ., Edina, Minn. 2008, ISBN 978-1-599-28843-7 .
  • Gwenda Blair : Laura Ingalls Wilder . Putnam Publishing Group, New York 1980.
  • Kelly Kathleen Ferguson: My Life as Laura. How I Searched for Laura Ingalls Wilder and Found Myself. Press 53, Winston-Salem 2011, ISBN 978-1-935708-44-5 .
  • Pamela S. Hill: Laura Ingalls Wilder. A writer's life . SDS Historical Society Press, Pierre, SD 2007, ISBN 978-0-9777955-6-7 .
  • Amy Sickels: Laura Ingalls Wilder (Who wrote that?). Chelsea House, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-7910-9525-6 .
  • Tanya L. Stone: Laura Ingalls Wilder . DK Publ., London 2009, ISBN 978-0-7566-4507-6 .
  • Sallie Ketcham: Laura Ingalls Wilder: American writer on the prairie , New York [u. a.]: Routledge, 2015, ISBN 978-041-582-020-2
  • Caroline Fraser: Prairie fires: the American dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder , New York: Metropolitan Books, 2017, ISBN 978-1-62779-276-9

Film adaptations

Our small farm has been adapted several times for television:

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ About the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award . American Library Association (English).
  2. ↑ Laura Ingalls Wilder's name removed from book award over racism concerns , theguardian.com, June 24, 2018, accessed June 25, 2018
  3. ↑ US organization recognizes Laura Ingalls Wilder Prize , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on June 25, 2018
  4. ↑ Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder , theguardian.com, November 26, 2010, accessed November 24, 2018
  5. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 18648
  6. ↑ Jane Ciabattari: The 11 greatest children's books. BBC, April 2, 2015, accessed April 11, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Wilder, Laura Ingalls
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilder, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Pepin , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1957
Place of death Mansfield , Missouri